Big Games

I kinda like all my games to be small, quick and low level. This has not really been the case over the last few weekends. First off, I wanted to try and finish my long running World of Darkness game, November's Children. My core players are Andy, Marsh, Ade and Tim, with Andy and Marsh having been in every session. So it was that on Bank Holiday Monday, the five of us, along with my brother, went up to Tim's house to have a barbecue and finish the last three sessions of November's Children in one go.

We succeeded. Partially. We only got two sessions done, since Ade couldn't make it. We ate most of the barbecue, but about a third of the beefburgers I got were left in the fridge for me to have with my pasta in the coming weeks. So another final session will have to be arranged. We gamed for the best part of eight hours, including full scale pitched battles between psychic cultists and angry werewolves, it was pretty damn brutal. In the end, we were only one safehouse siege away from the end of the storyline.

And the weekend after that?

Ian, Robin, Ed, Dave and Weave needed a sixth player in their gargantuan Warhammer battle of Skaven vs. Dwarfs. Now, it's been a long time since I actually played Warhammer and never with this edition of the rules. I've never played with either of those armies. I was on the Skaven team and had to quickly learn as much as I could about my sacrificial force in the middle, that was quickly decimated by massed Dwarf firepower.

The first two turns took an entire day, while the rest of the game was wrapped up on the sunday. It was a close one, with only the narrowest of narrow victories going to the stunty bearded ones. I'm not sure if I enjoyed myself, since I was stuck with an army I didn't really like, playing against an army I didn't really like. I've always thought that Skaven and Dwarfs are well suited to each other.

Both are pretty chin-hairy.

On the other side of the table, Robin was playing with a small contingent of Bretonnians and quite frankly, I would have much rather been over there, since Dave was a grump for most of the game. He's a poor winner and a poor loser, but he's a decent guy all round. I'm not sure how much I miss Warhammer, but I do kinda miss Ian, Robin, Ed and the feeling of hanging out in Miniature Merchants from many, many years ago. Ah... the Big Games.

Okay so...

CAPTAIN AMERICA:
FIRST AVENGER

One the absolutely great things about this Marvel 'Road to the Avengers' is that all the films have this exact same quality to them while being very different in nature. They all have a wonderful feeling of 'we're not brilliant or ground-breaking, but we are a whole load of geeky awesome'.

What with all the tie-ins with Thor and Iron Man, this movie is firmly entrenched in the Marvelverse, and it doesn't do anything to hold it back. This film is entertaining, plenty violent and plays out like a real WW2 epic. The length of time this film covers could easily feel like a lot longer than it is.

Because this is such a straight laced film, without any hint of sarcasm in its telling, it's kinda difficult to understand where the character development comes in, but as soon as you realise that Captain America is kind of like an opposite hero, it all makes sense. Normally a superhero gets their powers and then has to figure out how to actually be a hero with them. With Cap, he's alreay a hero, he just needs to figure out how to be super.

I wasn't entirely sure about Hugo Weaving's Red Skull, but I think that was just something to do with the facial make up. All in all, the supporting cast were incredible, with the Tommy Lee Jones interrogating Toby Jones scene to be an absolute show stealer. So many Joneses... but anyway, Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark was refreshingly familiar, while Natalie Dormer's short role was unexpectedly welcome, considering just how hot she is.

All in all, I genuinely can't wait to see The Avengers, now that all the major players are in place. One of the best things Marvel ever did was to make sure that the leads for these films were not A-list Leading Men, and Chris Evans nails it.

He's our Captain.

And so next... Somthing I saw on my Holiday...